IN THE NICK OF TIME
by sarupetto
Summary: The timeline is when Alibaba visited Balbadd when it was under Kouen's rule and after Alibaba was forced to be Kouen's right hand man. One night, Alibaba was kidnapped by his former citizens of Balbadd.


NOTE: Do read. The timeline is when Alibaba visited Balbadd when it was under Kouen's rule and after Alibaba was forced to be Kouen's right hand man. Like always, don't be shy to comment on any mistake related to the canon or if you have any suggestion.

DISCLAIMER: Manga/Anime MAGI is not mine and I gain NO monetary profit whatsoever from this fic. This is done solely for pleasure purpose.

Well, then.

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TITLE: IN THE NICK OF TIME

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Alibaba woke up from his slumber and groaned as his head pounded with pain. He moved his hand to massage the temples only to find that he could not as something rattled above him.

"Wha-?" Alibaba mumbled.

He looked up but the place was too dark and his eye had not gotten used to the darkness yet. However, by the cold sensation around his hands that were trapped together, he realized that his hands were bounded by a chain above his head and when he looked down despite still not seeing anything, he tried to move his feet making rattling sounds, but just like his hands they were chained, each to one side. His whole body seemed to be supported by the chain wrapping around his hands. He tried to pull the chains above him to straighten himself, but stop when there was a sharp pain on his right shoulder.

"Urgh! Hurts," he groaned.

He tried to roll his shoulder, but stop when he could not take the pain. It was not a sore muscle. His shoulder was dislocated. So, he stayed in the slumped position. Then, he registered that it was oddly cold as though…he looked down to his body, glad that his eyes had adjusted a bit to the dark. Sure enough, he was half naked. His upper body was bare and his lower body was covered by a very thin clothe wrapped around his waist and secured by a mere string that with just one harsh tug could bare him to the world.

"Don't think about it," Alibaba murmured to himself again and again.

That's right. If you don't think, it won't happen. That was Alibaba's hope. After he was calm again, he took stock of his surrounding, slowly looking around the dark room as to not jar his shoulder again. When his eyes were finally fully used to the dark, he found that the room was more like a cave than a human-made building with the stone walls surrounding him and there were no windows, nothing at all indicating that it was lived in, but what concerned him the most was that there was no door. No matter where he looked at, he could not find any crack…no, to be exact, there were too many cracks littering the cave's walls that he hardly found one that would indicate that it was where the entrance would be. That was until the cave shook, jarring his shoulder and the wall right in front of him split open. Then five men came in, lighting up the space brightly with a magic ball causing Alibaba to snap his eyes closed before he squinted through the flood of light and saw a trolley filled with torture equipment. He also saw the smirk on their faces, looking predatory as they sauntered over to him with slow, relaxed steps. Forgotten scenes from the past flashed in his minds and dread filled him as he foresaw what would be done to him.

Meanwhile, in the castle, Morgiana, Toto, Olba and his siblings were panicking. Yesterday night, Alibaba had requested that he be left alone as he wandered around the newly-changed Balbadd. At first, when Alibaba did not came back to the palace, they thought that perhaps Alibaba had slept in one of his friend's or colleague's house and that was true, until this morning, when Hassan and Zainab barged into the castle, dishevelled and bloodied, their child wailing in Zainab's hands, and Alibaba's sword and scabbard tainted with blood gripped tightly in Hassan's trembling hands. Their faces were the depiction of horror as Morgiana and the others realized what had happened to their King. Morgiana had flew out of the castle towards the city in a matter of second. The rest of Alibaba's Household were about to follow the girl when Koumei stopped them and told them that they needed to come up with a plan to rescue the kidnapped boy if they really wanted to save Alibaba quickly. So, Kouen, Koumei, Hassan and Alibaba's Households except Morgiana went into a secluded meeting room to devise a plan to rescue Alibaba.

"Do you really can't think of anything distinguished about the attackers? Their clothes, any scars or tattoos, the heights or any quirks?" Koumei interrogated Hassan.

Hassan gripped his head as he stayed silent before cursing and apologizing, "I'm sorry, I can't. It was too quick. We were ambushed from the shadows and even with Alibaba's skills, there were just too many of them and they all covered themselves in similar clothes and styles. Furthermore, the night just made it all the more hard for us to see them well. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," Hassan sobbed.

"It's okay. But then, this made it difficult. We had sent a few groups to search for Alibaba but it would take time to get any response from them yet," Koumei surmised.

Just then, Morgiana came back with a bundle of clothes, but the sullen look on her face only made everyone's hope diminished that much more. She dumped the clothes –Alibaba's clothes- before she gripped the bottom of her gown, and covered her eyes with her bang as she choked out, "They stripped him of his original clothes. I tracked down his smell until I found this in an alley, but then I could not anymore. I get back to sir Hassan's house, but the only thing that did not fit in the house was just this," Morgiana laid a dried and bloodied purple moss on the table. "I tried to track the moss's smell, but there was just too many smells mixed with it that I could not pinpoint the original's moss' smell and now that it had dried up, the smell had been too diminished for me to scent to distinguish one smell from another."

Everyone became silent as little by little their hope to find Alibaba as quickly as they could became smaller and smaller.

In the cave, a pained cry came from Alibaba as more shallow gouges on his body were slathered with alcohol and salt before four set of palms from his four torturers slapped and squeezed the wounded flesh. Alibaba could not help but groaned at the ache. The leader signalled for his men to stop. He looked at the gasping boy in front of him. There were gashes of various depths littering the body of the former prince of Balbadd, bleeding out the boy's life force constantly. The boy's shoulder had been relocated before they tortured the boy so they could have more fun. He got up from his chair and tilted Alibaba's chin upwards, grinning as he looked at Alibaba's sweaty, bloodied and scrunched up face. He traced a finger along a small gash on Alibaba's cheek, swiping the drops of blood leaking out slowly and smeared it on the boy's lips. He made sure that the boy was paying attention to him before he talked.

"Do you know why we did this?" the leader asked. "You were the prince of Balbadd. We were your citizens. But then, you escaped when Kou's army came and took over this country. And now, we've lost our identity. Now, we don't care anymore what's going to happen to this country. Balbadd is no more and so are we. And you should have ceased. Most of us wanted to kill you, but then, we thought of squeezing some money from you and torturing you. We would be more than willing to cut your life right here right now, but then, where's the fun in it?" The man grinned widely, "and like we thought, this is definitely much better. Your painful cry is such a sweet melody to us and we'll count your betrayal as paid once we received the money we'll be demanding from the Kou," he finished, letting go of Alibaba's chin whose head slumped like a doll as he was too weak to move his own body anymore after all of the tortures from being slashed and wounds gripped. His whole body was trembling with jolts of pain.

Retreating, the leader sat back again and gave a sign for his men to continue the torture as they like as long the former prince was not killed. Alibaba looked weakly through his fringe as the men took one whip each. He gulped. The fear he felt as the men neared him caused him to let out a sob as he clenched his teeth and scrunched his eyes closed, waiting for the impact. A whip and he screamed as some of his wounds were touched by the whips. Another whip, another cry and it went on until Alibaba could not take it anymore and with a final silent cry he blacked out from the pain. Yet, the main continued to whip the unconscious boy, their desire to just hurt their former prince drove them until their leader became bored and ordered them to stop, saying that they needed to proceed their next plan in demanding the ransom from the palace. He told them to unbind the boy before he went out of the room. Proceeding to do just that, the four men unlocked the chains, watching with sordid satisfaction as Alibaba fell down like a limp doll, painting the floor with his blood that continued to seep out slowly still. Then, they left the boy just like that and went away, closing the entrance of the room from the outside.

It was early evening when the palace was shocked with a message from the kidnappers. Morgiana, Toto, Olba and his siblings, Kouen and Koumei rushed outside to the yard of the palace just before the main gate where they saw a chilling reminder. One of the men that were sent to search for Alibaba in the forest was slumping across a horse. He was dead. The man's back was stabbed with a sword where a paper was wrapped and secured around it. Koumei took the paper and unravelled it. His hands twitched when he realized that the message was written with the dead man's blood. He took a breath and read the content aloud, going silent as he finished the end.

 _We are Alibaba's kidnappers. We demand for a ransom of gold worth his head but if the amount is too small, then, we'll kill Alibaba. As a warning, we have tortured Alibaba to half-death. We're not joking in killing Alibaba. We're not afraid of being caught. We knew what we're getting into, so don't challenge us. Well then, for the gold, just pack it up and put it in an abandoned cave stated below. We give you only until tonight. Delayed and you'll have Alibaba's head and body separated delivered tomorrow to the front gate. Comply and we'll return Alibaba tomorrow morning on a horse._

Morgiana slumped onto the ground as she gazed unseeing at the dirt below her hands. Toto and the others quickly went to her, sitting near her for comfort as Olba tried to convince her that Alibaba was a strong man and that he would be saved no matter what. Koumei looked at Alibaba's group, his heart gripped with sympathy. He looked at his brother and waited for his brother's response though looking at his brother's grim expression, he could guess what the answer was already.

"Prepare the gold. We're going to rescue Alibaba," he ordered Koumei.

"Very well," Koumei answered, turning around and quickly giving orders.

Alibaba's group gave a sigh of relief as they went inside the castle after Kouen. Now, they could only wait. That night, a group of Kou's soldiers was sent to deliver the gold to the cave described by the letter.

The next morning, they were already waiting by the gate as soon as dawn came with a few more than usual guards guarding the entrance to the palace. Morgiana's heart was thudding hard against her chest.

"Please be alright, Alibaba, please come back," she mumbled as she gripped her hands together and looked at the palace's entrance.

Just then, a horse gave a neigh from afar and seemed to run towards the castle with something lain across its back. People were shrieking as the horse passed by them. It ran into the castle and neighed before staying still. There Alibaba was, half naked, bloodied, unconscious and barely alive. Kouen, without further ado took the boy into his arms and carried him into castle, shouting orders for them to get the palace's magicians to get into Alibaba's room. Everyone was shocked, but then Koumei took the matter into his hands and barked another order and they all quickly moves to carry out the order. Kouen had instructed the magicians to treat the boy until he recovered. Fortunately, the wounds were only flesh wounds and though no bone was broken, the amound of blood that Alibaba had lost was quite a lot. The magicians managed to save Alibaba's life just in the nick of time.

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FINISH

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NOTE: Done! Sob sob sob. Right now, I'm so proud of myself. The second MAGI fic in between so little time since the first. It was a hard battle against my LAZINESS and I admit I almost lost. Urgh! Anyway, thanks for reading. Tchuss~


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